Japanese Patent No. 3867107 discloses a method in which a pulse laser beam is used for dicing of a semiconductor substrate. In the method of Japanese Patent No. 3867107, a crack region is formed in a workpiece by an optical damage generated with a pulse laser beam. The workpiece is cut with the crack region as a starting point.
In the related art, the formation of the crack region is controlled using parameters, such as energy and a spot diameter of the pulse laser beam and a relative moving speed between the pulse laser beam and the workpiece.